PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

Wen Yan

Publications and source records attributed to Wen Yan.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Role of the integrin-linked kinase/PINCH1/alpha-parvin complex in cardiac myocyte hypertrophy.

Outside-in signaling from fibronectin (FN) through integrin receptors has been shown to play an important role in promoting cardiac myocyte hypertrophy and synergizes with other hypertrophic stimuli such as the alpha-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine (PE) and mechanical strain. The integrin-linked kinase (ILK) is a critical molecule involved in cell adhesion, motility and survival in nonmyocytes such as fibroblasts and epithelial cells. Its role in cardiac myocytes is unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that (1) ILK forms a complex with PINCH1 and alpha-parvin proteins (IPAP1 complex) in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes; (2) localization of IPAP1 complex proteins to costameres in cardiac myocytes is stimulated by FN, PE and synergistically by the combination of FN and PE in an integrin beta1-dependent manner; (3) a dominant-negative mutant lacking the PINCH-binding N-terminus of ILK (ILK-C) prevents costamere association of ILK and alpha-parvin, but not PINCH1; (4) FN- and PE-induced hypertrophy, measured by increased protein/DNA ratio, beating frequency and atrial natriuretic peptide expression, is stimulated by low levels of ILK-C but repressed by high ILK-C expression; and (5) overexpression of ILK-C, as well as deletion of the ILK gene in mouse neonatal ventricular myocytes, induces marked apoptosis of cardiac myocytes. These results suggest that the IPAP1 complex plays an important role in mediating integrin-signaling pathways that regulate cardiac myocyte hypertrophy and resistance to apoptosis.

Actinin↗
PubMed2003

Developing novel oncolytic adenoviruses through bioselection.

Mutants of human adenovirus 5 (Ad5) with enhanced oncolytic activity were isolated by using a procedure termed bioselection. Two mutants, ONYX-201 and ONYX-203, were plaque purified from a pool of randomly mutagenized Ad5 that was repeatedly passaged in the human colorectal cancer cell line HT29, and they were subsequently characterized. ONYX-201 and ONYX-203 replicated more rapidly in HT29 cells than wild-type Ad5, and they lysed HT29 cells up to 1,000-fold more efficiently. The difference was most profound when cells were infected at a relatively low multiplicity of infection, presumably due to the compounding effects of multiple rounds of infection. This enhanced cytolytic activity was observed not only in HT29 cells but also in many other human cancer cell lines tested. In contrast, the cytotoxicity of the bioselected mutants in a number of normal primary human cells was similar to that of wild-type Ad5, thus enhancing the therapeutic index (cytotoxicity in tumor cells versus that in normal cells) of these oncolytic agents. Both ONYX-201 and -203 contain seven single-base-pair mutations when compared with Ad5, four of which were common between ONYX-201 and -203. The mutation at nucleotide 8350, shared by both mutant viruses, was shown to be essential for the observed phenotypes. This mutation was mapped to the i-leader region of the major late transcription unit, resulting in the truncation of 21 amino acids from the C terminus of the i-leader protein. This work demonstrates that bioselection is a powerful tool for developing novel tumor-selective oncolytic viruses. Other potential applications of this technology are discussed.

Adenoviruses, Human↗